Lead Us Not Into Tempation

In: Personal Reflections on the Study of God's Word
Published:

The book of Job focuses mainly on the lessons Job learned as he went through the trials inflicted upon him as Satan tries to shake him loose from the faith and trust that he has in God. His friends tell him he is suffering because he has some secret hidden sin that he needs to confess, his wife tells him to just give up and curse God and die, but he refuses to let go of God. When we look at the beginning of the book we find the curtains drawn back so we can see what is happening behind the scenes (something that Job, his wife, and his friends did NOT have) observing interactions between God and Satan. In chapter 2 God is addressing Satan for the second time highlighting Job's faithfulness despite Satan "inciting [God] against him to ruin him without cause."

When we jump over to the new testament Matthew 4 begins by stating "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." It would be easy to conclude from the story of Job and the temptations of Jesus that God is the one who tempts us, or at least leads us into temptation. That brings us to our Lord's Prayer phrase for this week "Lead us not into temptation" (#LeadUsNotIntoTemptation).
 
How do we reconcile the idea from Job and Matthew that God places us in the path of temptation with Jesus telling us to ask God to not lead us there? Does it mean that God will lead us into temptations path if we DON'T ask Him not to? What is the difference between living in this world, where we WILL face temptation, and God intentionally placing us in the line of fire?
 
In Jesus prayer for His disciples in John 17 He states "I am not asking You to take them out of the world..." (we will look at the rest of verse 15 next week!) In James 1:13 we are told "No one is to say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God'...He Himself does not tempt anyone." Here we find Jesus telling us it is necessary for us to be "in the world" and as a result trials and temptations will come, but James reminds us that being tempted is NOT sin, but it becomes sin when we dwell on it and become enticed by our own desires for something that God has not designed that we should have.
 
Job was able to withstand the temptations of Satan (through his wife and friends) because he refused to abandon his belief that God was with him. He didn't know why he was facing the trials that were happening in his life, but he knew God was with him through them all. Jesus was able to resist the temptations of the devil when He refused to focus on His own situation, choosing instead to focus on God's direct statements about who He was and what He needed to do to redeem the world.
 
Satan's temptations of Jesus focused on two ideas - you can't believe what God has said in the past and God's plan is not the best way to reach your goals. The temptations that we face will focus on these two ideas as well - you can't trust God's word, and He doesn't have your best interest at heart. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that with every temptation that we face God has provided a way to endure it. James 4:7 tells us "Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

 

Friday Blog

This past week has been an interesting and thought provoking week for me. Last Friday I received a phone call from Stephanie Sheehan, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Adventist University, continuing a conversation that began about three months ago. We had been dialoging about an open faculty position in the School of Business at Southern that had taken several intriguing twists and turns over the course of the months long conversation. The simple summary of the phone call on Friday was "with everything that has transpired, are you still interested in teaching at Southern." On Wednesday of this week I received an official invitation from the Academic VP's office to join the School of Business faculty. Throughout the past three months both Lisa and I have felt like every time the door seems to be closing on this opportunity God has pushed the door open again (the post from March 13 is a response to incidents that happened as part of the ongoing dialogue!) Due to the vast array of evidence that seems to point to God's direction in this matter on Wednesday evening I accepted the position.

Friday Blog

When I was younger my brothers and I would often camp beside the pond at the top of Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, Maine (unfortunately camping is now prohibited on the mountain.) Most of the time we would be the only campers on the mountain providing a peaceful solitude away from the busyness of life. We would start at the drive-in base camp located on a long dirt road off the main highway leading into Weld and hike the nearly 3 miles along the Parker Ridge trail to the top. From this bare summit we could look down on Tumbledown pond or we could look to the south and east toward Webb lake and Mt. Blue. One of the defining features of this hike was the climb through the woods to a steep ascent that lead over three succeeding rock ledges before finally ascending Parker Ridge. As you came out of the woods all you could see was the crest of the first ledge. For a first time hiker it appears you are about to reach the summit, only to be disappointed when you finally get there and discover there is another ridge. That experience was repeated two more times as you crested ledges two and three before finally reaching the (almost) summit (if you continue on the loop trail that goes around the lake you will ascend to a higher summit before descending back down through the "chimney" and "fat man's misery" - it is far better to come UP that trail rather than try to go down!) 

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